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Friday, March 18, 2016

FLORENCE

It’s not just a hat, It’s art for the head

executive summary by darmansjah

WANDER INTO the historic neighborhood of San Frediano, just
steps from the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti, and you will find a narrow
shop, Cappelli Antonio Gatto. Here, some of the simplest materials-felt,straw-come
alive in the hands of Gianni Gatto, a sculptor of hats.

“I discovered my masters in Florence’s little markets, where
I found hats by such legendary Florentine designers as Pietro Frnceschini and
Gigi,” he says. The fashioning of hats has a long lineage in this city where
the Renaissance blossomed; 16th-century portraits show members of
the aristocratic Medici family sporting gable headdresses and red caps.

Gatto attributes his inspiration to family members.

“As a child, I would hide under sacred vestments being
embroidered by my aunts. Watching their fingers dance on the cloth. I memorized
how to do basting stitches.”

Gatto’s workshop, a short walk from the goldsmiths of Ponte
Vecchio, is a favorite with style arbiters. Tellingly, he always keeps in mind
the person he designs for.

“A hat by itself is incomplete,” he states. “It’s the person
who completes it, by wearing it in a certain way, giving it a soul and a
personality.”